Greystar has completed the £291m acquisition of the Nido portfolio of student assets from global investment firm KKR.
The five assets comprise 2,163 units, located in London, Glasgow, Coventry and Bristol. Four of the assets are operational and let to students for the 2020/21 academic year, a fifth property in Bristol is under construction and due for occupancy in September 2021.
Greystar will bring the assets under a new European brand which it will launch later this year.
The acquisition forms Greystar’s second UK PBSA portfolio, alongside the premium London-focused brand Chapter. It follows the sale of the iQ portfolio to Blackstone for £4.7bn by the Goldman Sachs, Wellcome Trust and Greystar partnership at the beginning of 2020.
Ben Mowbray, senior director for UK investment at Greystar, said: “We see potential to generate additional yield from these assets through dynamic pricing and the introduction of our world-class operating platform.
“The fundamentals of the UK student accommodation market are still strong despite the pandemic.”
Mowbry pointed to ongoing demand, with a record number of applications to higher education institutions and a structural undersupply of student accommodation.
Mark Allnutt, senior managing director for Europe at Greystar, said: “Regardless of the pandemic, student housing remains a counter-cyclical asset class, so while near-term occupancy may be temporarily affected, we expect rental rates to remain resilient.”
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